MAI

A Thai series unlike any other. We get an unique insider's perspective into the Thai emergency volunteering system, its community, and their challenges. Overall great production value and stellar acting. It is a bit slow at times and it stays relatively safe by sticking to a typical action-thriller plot (hence the story was pretty predictable) but it's an overall solid watch.

So far this show is okay. While I am enjoying it I also just wish that the storyline would have been a tad more serious. The stereotyping is just a bit much; right now I feel like the humour distracts from the fact that drag performances are also an art, passion, or even a livelihood for many people. So far Prab Suek has only been dressed in cheap wigs and ill-fitting dresses. Of course the dude will look like crap! He is supposed to go undercover so it makes no sense for him to look like he's raided his 10 year-old sister's closet-- it is solely done for comedic purpose. It now feels like the jokes are made at the expense of the katoey people whereas the show should actually be making of Prab Suek for his nonsensical hatred for LGBTQ+ people and his toxic masculinity. Give Prab some quality clothing, let him embarrass himself in front of an audience, and let a drag queen help him out in order to teach him a life lesson about the true art and hardship of performances instead. It's not that hard to make the storyline more positive. Also, I am hella annoyed by that 'bipolar' villain and I could totally do without this character since they are not even relevant to the storyline. Yet again, mental illness is employed for laughs. There are enough other villains who could do the job.

Oh, you're right, Joss seems to be quite suitable for the role! It's only a short trailer, so it's hard to say how it would have actually been, but they seem to have more chemistry than what we've seen from Luke and Grace so far. They're not necessarily bad but there is definitely no romantic tension. I find that that's my usual critique when it comes to Luke's acting: he's just a bit stiff in his delivery in general (although he has improved since I've last seen him). Joss' acting feels a bit more natural and subdued.

I think the movie fails to give a nice wrap-up for a specific reason. The way I interpreted the movie was that the director took the high school and its extracurricular clubs as a symbol for (or microcosm of) society at large. He played with the idea that life is unpredictable, open-ended and, yet, it goes on. There is no overarching authority that can tell you how to best live life. We can wish for (or construct) our own Kirishimas all we want but, in reality, you can only really figure out life along the way. I think it would have defeated the purpose of the movie if everything got resolved or if Kirishima would have actually returned in the end.

This was strange and unconventional but, admittedly, also quite endearing. I didn't enjoy it as much as others seemed to have but it is a nice, easy watch nonetheless.

I smell the sweet aroma of a lawsuit...

Sure they just felt represented for once y'all 😂

Am I the only one who thinks it's ironic that Viki got hacked by someone distributing a show about the love life of a computer science major LOL?

Singapore works for me!

This entire series was just one long sequence of Third weeping. 🤡

Now, this seems interesting! Hope Nuchy will stick to her typical style of directing; I'm def down for some symbolism, moral ambiguity, and angst.

I am literally only at episode 4 and I was starting to wonder whether we will see Third do anything else than mope around and have crying fits. He's a true ✨sad boy✨ huh.

Lead actors generally get paid more than their co-stars, and Gun already has some awards under his belt already so, yeah, out of the whole bunch he probably got paid most. Payment is generally more about screen-time than it is about the amount of roles anyway.

"I shouldn't have to read two books to be able to tell what's going on in one drama. The script shouldn't need a decoder."

Now, truer words have never been spoken! Quite arrogant and lazy indeed to expect that, simply because this show is a BL, your audience will be familiar with the source material. That's not how adaptations work.

I am not familiar with the original work so I'm not completely sure, but someone told me that the screenwriters/director merged two stories from different novels with this series. If that is indeed the case, I would say the scriptwriters are equally guilty of creating this hot mess. 😂
I must also agree with you that New's acting performance is rather questionable (although, to be honest, none of the actors really managed to blow me away) but that issue is only secondary to the mediocre script problem for me. I would be okay with a weaker acting performance if the rest of the plot would actually make sense.

Definitely more of a coming of age story than a true horror movie. While the plot is pretty predicable, it is also a wonderful, realistic, and moving watch. It is quite witty how the director manages to tie together two different liminal states (the in-between stage of childhood/adolescence and the ghostly in-between stage of life and reincarnation). A must-watch for sure!

Last time I came here to check out the comment section everyone was overwhelmingly positive about this show. Shocked, but also somewhat relieved, to find the mood has shifted so much. I have been stuck at episode 6 for weeks now and I don't really have a strong incentive to continue watching, and it is somewhat comforting to read I am not the only one who is kinda bored. I literally thought this show would break the internet since it had such a strong start: the action was good, the main leads had great chemistry, and it seemed to have an overall engaging plot. Unfortunately it just doesn't live up to my expectations. There is not enough progress to drive the plot forward, and the same settings and scenes keep being recycled. The show depends so heavily on the cute, fluffy interaction between Ichiro and Shiro to draw in the audience that it forgets that it is also an investigation drama that needs to have substance and angst to make sense.

Just to warn you: objectively, this is really not that good. Story and acting could both use some serious work. Still, I watched the entire thing because-- I wasn't joking-- this was the most explicitly gay series I've seen in years. Watching this felt like witnessing a major historical event or something.

Strange piece of work, this one. This conjured every urban fantasy trope in existence only to supplement it with flat characters and mediocre acting. The premise was great (quite 'Trese'-esque) but it ended up both forgettable and ridiculous.

Glad so many people are constructively critiquing the absurdity of this show. Scriptwriter, please, we ain't stupid... 😂